Digimon: Just a Game?
by ant2011
Summary: As a new video game takes hold of today's youth, a sinister secret lies inside. Eight young children, each a member of this game, soon find themselves sucked inside of this strange foreign land and must fight if they have any hope of leaving or saving the world.
1. Prologue

Prologue

A new video game craze has swept the nation, Digital Monster Adventure. A complex role playing game set in a fantastical world where players take control of a monster and train it to fight and explore. Included with the game is a handheld device to play on the go and battle other players. This game has gripped a wide audience, players hailing from all walks of life and social circles. The game's creator, David Thompson, is hailed as a genius, having coded the game by himself. However, there is a dark secret to this game, and eight children are about to unravel the mystery whether they want to or not.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was another typical day at school, kids were crowding in the halls with their handheld games to fight each other with their digital monsters. There was an especially large crowd huddled around Sarah Parker, a girl well known through the school as being a tough lone wolf. Online she was sought after by other users who wanted to be her friend and explore the game world together, but she believed they just wanted to use her to get to tougher areas.

She had long brown hair that hung down past her shoulders, on top of her head was a black beret. Her eyes were a dark blue, and they pierced anyone who would try to approach her.

"Who's next for Mushroomon?" She asked holding her blue handheld out in front of her. The device was white as snow and had a small screen and several buttons on the case. There was a blue ring around the screen, covered in strange runic symbols.

"I'll give it a go!" A boy said from the back of the crowd. It was Dominic Harris, a kid in the same class as Sarah. He was a bit of a slacker, skating by by the skin of his teeth most of the time. He had dirty blonde hair, messy as messy could be. His eyes were a light blue, almost silver.

He pushed through the crowd and fished his handheld game from his pocket. It looked the same as all the others, but the ring around his screen was purple. "Goblimon is a tough monster, I doubt you'll have much luck taking him down."

Sarah smirked and the two linked their devices through a wireless connection. "Don't cry when Mushroomon buries your pathetic hunk of data in the virtual graveyard."

In one of the other hallways at school, another girl was drawing a lot of attention. It was Brooke Morris. Her light brown hair was short, cut just to her chin level, her eyes almost the same color. She was twirling her handheld around her finger with a keychain she had attached to it. Even though it was spinning pretty fast, one could easily notice the green ring around the screen. "Yeah, Elecmon is pretty powerful, I bet he could take out one of the boss monsters alone."

Another girl sighed, "Sure Brooke, I bet he could." Elizabeth Scott was a year older than Brooke and didn't know much about her, but she was pretty sure Elecmon wasn't as strong as Brooke was making him sound. Elizabeth had her long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, it was a little dry and frizzy but that's what pool water does most of the time. She had a pair of swim goggles around her neck, ever ready to cover her blue eyes.

"Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and fight then?" Brooke challenged as she stopped spinning her handheld and grinned.

Elizabeth gulped, She couldn't tell if Brooke was bluffing or being serious anymore. She clenched her own handheld game tightly, her fingers running over the orange ring around the screen. "I uh, I would but," At that moment, her friend and fellow classmate Malachai caught her attention. "Malachai and I already have a battle set up for today."

Malachai Adams, who was only a few feet away, overhead his name. His dark brown hair was straight except for the tips which curled up, and hung down past his ears. He glanced down at his handheld, the gray ring around his screen staring back at him. He slipped the game into his backpack and slammed his locker. "Sorry Liz, I forgot my game at home today." He said as he hurried past the girls towards his first class, keeping his light brown eyes off them.

Brooke smirked, "Come on Elizabeth, are you really afraid of losing to an underclassman?"

Elizabeth was scared, she just didn't want to show it. "Me? Scared? No way. I just gotta run to the bathroom and then to my first class before the bell rings. Maybe we can battle later." She put her game in her pocket and ran off.

Brooke sighed, "Oh well. I guess when you know you'll lose it's better to run."

Another boy had overheard what was said, "I'll take you on." He said as he walked over to Brooke. He pulled a game from his pocket and tapped the yellow ring around the screen. "Lopmon is pretty tough, but you'll probably still beat me. Most people do."

"Hey, you're that depressed kid right? You sit in the back of my history class. Cole Wilson, right?" Brooke asked scratching her chin.

The boy shook his head, "No, Cale. Cale Williams. You were close though." Cale had short red hair and green eyes, although it was hard to notice under the hood of his black sweatshirt.

Brooke shrugged her shoulders, "Oh well. You sure you want to battle?"

Cale nodded and the two of them began their battle.

Outside of the school, a limousine pulled up to the sidewalk and a young girl stepped out. She had long bleached blonde hair and a condescending glare in her hazel eyes. Rebecca Nelson was the girl in question, she was the daughter of an extremely wealthy family. "Thank you Derrick, you're perhaps the best driver daddy hired." She slammed the door and made her way towards the school. She bumped into a boy with a large backpack.

"Hey! Watch it!" The boy shouted as he fell down. It was Tobias Cooper, he was in the same class as Rebecca. He had short black hair, buzzed as short as possible.

She stuck her nose up, "Maybe you should get out of my way next time, Toby."

Tobias frowned as he picked up his glasses and put them back on, "Nobody calls me Toby you little brat! You think just because everything is handed to you, you get to just walk all over people?"

Rebecca yawned sarcastically, "Are you done? I can't keep paying the teachers to ignore when I'm tardy so I can't be late."

Tobias rummaged through his bag and pulled out a handheld game, the ring around his was pink. "I'm gonna shut you up for good, fight me!"

Rebecca took one look at the pink game and laughed, "Pink? Why don't you paint it? You sure got paired with a crappy color!" She reached into her purse and pulled out a game with a teal ring, "Sure I'll have a battle with you! But you know I'll just wind up winning."

As the two were about to begin their battle, the three minute warning bell rang out. They put their games away and ran into the school. The halls which were once packed with students battling each other were now emptying out. Children poured into classrooms and filled the desks.

Malachai sat at his desk, uninterested in the lessons he would learn today. He had received a strange email earlier from another user of the Digital Monster Adventure game. He couldn't trace the sender, and the email was corrupted. Normally he would have thought it was just a spam email, but he had filters in place to prevent spam.

He opened a notebook and began doodling to pass the time, the thoughts of that email still running through his mind. As he was wasting time, he heard a voice calling out to him. He couldn't make out what it was saying, but he could definitely tell his name was in there. He needed to find out what was going on, so he shot his hand in the air.

"Yes Malachai?" His teacher asked.

"I'm not feeling well, may I have the bathroom pass?" He said with his best sick face.

The teacher sighed and pulled a wood block from her desk, "Yes, come get it."

He grabbed his backpack and went to the front of the class to get the bathroom pass. "Thank you." He said as he left the classroom.

As he walked through the halls the voice kept calling to him, every step he took the voice became clearer, "Help... Me... Malachai..." He picked up the pace, hoping to find the source of the voice. "Help me, Malachai."

Finally, he came to the source of the voice, the computer lab. He gripped the handle tightly and swung the door open. To his surprise, there were seven other students inside the lab: Brooke, Cale, Dominic, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Sarah, and Tobias. They were each as confused as Malachai was. "So, what brough the rest of you here?"

Dominic sat down in one of the chairs, "I heard someone calling for help, so I came running." The others all stared at him, they all had similar looks of surprise.

Tobias shook his head, "This is clearly a joke. I'm going back to my studies." He said as he made his way to the door.

Suddenly, the large computer screen at the front of the room lit up and a voice filled the room. "This is no joke. I need all of you to help me." The screen began displaying strange runic characters, similar to the ones on their handheld games. Before they had a chance to react, a bright light came from the computer screen. It grew brighter and brighter until they could no longer see anything.

When the light vanished they were no longer in their computer lab. Instead they were now in a desert. Surrounding them were eight creatures, the digital monsters they had been paired with in the Digital Monster Adventure game.

"This is pretty freaky." Dominic said staring at the them.

Tobias looked around, "Where are we?"

Hagurumon, partner to Tobias, floated around his head. "You're in the Digital World!"

Rebecca stared at Dorumon, her partner. "I don't remember having to sign a permission slip to come here."

Sarah rolled her eyes at Rebecca, then turned to Mushroomon. "Digital World? Like the video game?"

Mushroomon laughed, "Keh heh heh. It's not a video game, this is our home."

Goblimon hit the ground with his club. "We Digimon!" He said with a roar. "You our partners."

Before anyone else could speak, a horde of thirty angry Otamamon came charging at them from the distance. The Digimon rushed in front of their human partners to protect them.

"Don't worry! We'll take care of these Otamamon!" Fanbeemon said as he hovered in the air prepared to battle.

One of the Otamamon stepped forward, "You are trespassing on our land! You need to pay the price!"

Lopmon stepped forward to meet Otamamon in the middle, "What price do we have to pay?"

The Otamamon thought for a moment before snapping it's fingers. "Three hundred Digi dollars or your data."

Candlemon turned away from the Otamamon to look at the kids, "Do you have any Digi dollars?"

Rebecca pulled a credit card from her purse, "I don't know what the exchange rate is, but daddy has enough money, I'm sure of it."

The Otamamon scowled, "No! Your data it is!" They all leapt at the Digimon and the children when a lightning strike stopped them. A large book appeared where the lightning had struck. The Otamamon looked terrified. "Ah! Run away!" They said as they scattered away.

The book slowly opened and another Digimon appeared. It had a long robe that covered its face. "I am Wisemon, and you are not Digimon." Wisemon said pointing to the humans.

"How do we get home?" Tobias asked Wisemon.

"You're clearly viruses." Wisemon began. "Your only home is going to be the afterlife."

"They're not viruses!" Candlemon said as he hopped over to Wisemon.

"One moment. If any of you move, I won't hesitate to destroy you." Wisemon said as he stepped off his book and flipped some pages. When he stopped, a hologram burst from the pages and the face of a man appeared.

The hologram spoke to the children, "I noticed you broke into my game, you are either excellent hackers or top notch computer viruses. However, given the fact that I can't analyze your code I have no clue what you are."

"We're humans." Malachai said.

"We were sucked in here by a blinding light" Elizabeth said.

"Who are you anyway?" Tobias asked.

"I? You want to know who I am?" The hologram asked. "I am David Thompson, creator of Digital Monster Adventure." David's hologram stared at the children. "A blinding light? I noticed a change in the code, I thought it was a simple bug. I see now it was more than that."

"So like, what's going to happen to us?" Dominic asked, scratching his head.

"Well," David said. "I would lay low, avoid drawing attention. Try not to be seen by other players. I'll be working on a way to get you out of there."

"What do we do if somebody sees us?" Cale asked.

Sarah smirked, "Obviously, we crush them."

"Don't worry, I'll keep players away from here. Wisemon and I will be here checking the code to find out how to get you home." David said. "If you need anything, just come back here." With that, the hologram vanished and Wisemon took his place on top of the book.

"You should head as far north as you can," Wisemon began. "Players tend to avoid that area due to glitches so you should be safe."

"Won't we be affected by the glitches?" Brooke asked.

"In my mind you already are glitches, so I don't care." Wisemon said as he began reading through his book.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The group of humans and their Digimon partners wandered further north, pushing on for what felt like days. They had all made it further north than they did when they sat behind a computer screen controlling their partners. The land they found themselves in was a rocky barren wasteland, nothing inhabited this land except for a few patches of grass. With no passing of daytime to night it was hard to tell what time it was, but everyone knew it was time to stop and take a break.

Brooke sat on a nearby rock, "I can't keep going guys, I need to stop for a little while."

Elecmon collapsed next to his partner, laying against Brooke's legs. "I'm pretty pooped too."

"Fine then." Sarah snapped, "You two can catch up with the rest of us later."

Mushroomon tugged on Sarah's pant leg, "Come on boss, we're all pretty tired. If we keep going we'll all probably die."

Sarah rolled her eyes, "You're all just going to slow me down, but fine. We'll rest for a minute."

Everyone sat down next to their Digimon partner and took the time to absorb their surroundings.

Brooke was wearing a pair of denim dungarees that she had cut at the knees under which she wore a lilac shirt. She pulled her handheld game from the pocket on her chest and tried to turn it on. "That's weird, I can't play it..."

"That's because you're inside the Digital World. That's your Digivice." Elecmon said looking up at the device.

Cale was wearing a dark gray hooded sweatshirt over a black shirt, and wore a pair of denim cargo jeans. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out his own Digivice. "Digivice huh? What does it do?"

Lopmon jumped up on Cale's shoulder and poked at the Digivice with her ear, "It connects us together and helps us grow."

Dominic was laying on the ground, his hands under his head. He was wearing a green tank top and a pair of very baggy denim shorts. "So, these Digivices," He said as he pulled his from his own pocket, "They're pretty important?"

Goblimon hit his club on the ground. "Very important! Keep safe! Do not lose!"

Elizabeth was wearing a pink and red striped shirt and a pair of denim capris. She unclipped her Digivice from her belt and looked at the screen. "So how to we make you grow with these?"

Fanbeemon hovered around Elizabeth, "If we fight enough, we'll get stronger."

Malachai was wearing a pair of denim carpenter jeans, and a caramel shirt under a black vest. He took off his backpack, rummaged inside, and pulled out his Digivice. "That's pretty cool."

Candlemon hopped over to Malachai. "I'm glad you think so!"

Rebecca was wearing a pair of black leggings under a sleeveless green dress. She reached into her purse to pull out a pair of sunglasses and her Digivice fell out. "Oops!" She said as she put the glasses on.

Dorumon caught the Digivice, "Be careful Rebecca, if anything happens to this bad things could happen."

Tobias refused to sit down, not wanting to get his tan slacks dirty. He brushed some dirt off his gray sweater vest which was over a blue dress shirt. "I'm sure if I had the right tools I could hack into this and find all the secrets." He said as he clipped his Digivice to his belt.

Hagurumon floated down and poked the Digivice with his gear hand, "Don't hack it, you might break it!"

Sarah was wearing a gray long sleeve shirt under a dark pink shirt, with a pair of dark blue denim jeans. She pulled her Digivice from her pocket, "So then with this, just Mushroomon and I could become the strongest?"

Mushroomon laughed. "Keh heh heh! Don't be silly boss, you have a long way to go to be the strongest!"

"Malachai," Elizabeth began, "What do you have in your bag?"

"Hm?" Malachai opened his backpack and dumped it in front of him. "Crumpled papers, unfinished homework, a few folders, some pens, seven dollars, and a blank notebook." He stuffed the contents back inside his bag.

"Can we use any of that?" Cale asked as he patted Lopmon's head.

"Hey, if you need any of it then by all means take it." Malachai said patting his bag.

As the group sat around talking, a cloud of dust rose on the horizon. It seemed to get larger as time went by.

"Yo, what's that?" Dominic asked as he sat up, pointing to the cloud of dust.

"Nothing good! Nothing good! Nothing good!" Goblimon said as he ran around in circles.

"I suggest we run!" Tobias said pointing to a cave formation up ahead.

"I agree!" Sarah said as she began running ahead of the group.

Everybody ran towards the caves, hoping to reach safety before that cloud of dust got to them. Sarah was the first to the cave, followed by Brooke, then Elecmon with Fanbeemon close behind. Elizabeth came next, with Hagurumon behind her, then Lopmon, and Goblimon. Cale and Dominic ran into the cave next, followed by Malachai, who was followed by Dorumon and Mushroomon. Rebecca and Tobias were the last to run into the cave.

"Wait!" Malachai said as he glanced around the cave. "Where's Candlemon?"

Elizabeth looked out of the cave, the cloud of dust was right on top of them, but she could make out Candlemon about forty feet away. "He's still out there!"

Malachai ran towards the cave exit, but Elizabeth stopped him. "You're not going out there! It's too dangerous!"

"I'm not leaving Candlemon behind, he's my partner!" Malachai said as he pulled his arm free.

Elizabeth took the goggles from around her neck and gave them to Malachai, "I'm gonna need these back."

"Thanks Liz." Malachai said as he put the goggles on. They looked a little goofy on him, but they'd keep his eyes safe from the sand and dirt.

He ran out into the storm, the sand and dust stinging his arms with every passing second. He pressed on through the wind, slowly but surely making his way towards Candlemon. "Candlemon! Can you hear me?" He shouted as he walked, with no response. As he continued, he tripped on something and fell. When he sat up he saw what he had tripped on, it was Candlemon! "Candlemon!" He said as he reached for his Digimon, but there was something different. Candlemon's flame wasn't lit, and he was cold as ice. "No. No no no. I just met you buddy, you can't be dead."

The storm was picking up, there was no way he could make his way back to the cave. He grabbed Candlemon and made his way to a group of large rocks. He wedged himself in between the rocks and took off his vest. He curled up as small as he could to cover Candlemon and his own face to wait out the storm.

Malachai could hear Elizabeth and Cale calling for him, but just barely. It did comfort him to know the others were all right, he didn't want to imagine being on his own when he had no clue what to do. It felt like hours had passed before the storm finally died down. Malachai felt something on his back and shot up, "Who's there!?"

"Calm down, I just wanted to make sure you were okay." It was Cale and Lopmon.

"I'm okay, but Candlemon isn't." Malachai said as he put his vest back on and sat Candlemon on the ground.

Lopmon giggled, "He's okay, he's just asleep."

"How do you know?" Cale asked.

Lopmon poked Candlemon. "Well, would you be able to sleep if your head was on fire? The fire on a Candlemon goes out when they fall asleep, or pass out. If he was dead he wouldn't be here anymore."

Malachai breathed a sigh of relief, "Well that's good."

Almost on cue, the flame on Candlemon's head ignited and his eyes opened. "What did I miss?"

Malachai took Elizabeth's goggles off and stuffed them in his vest pocket, "You passed out during a sandstorm and I rushed out to make sure you were safe."

Candlemon sighed, "Sorry, I'm not very fast. I don't do much running."

Malachai shook his head, "Don't worry about it buddy."

Cale tapped Malachai on the shoulder, "Should we worry about that?"

Malachai looked up to see what Cale was pointing at. There was a group of strange looking Digimon walking towards them.

The others in the cave saw it too, and they made their way down to Malachai.

"What do we do?" Rebecca asked with a whine to her voice.

"We fight!" Dorumon said with a growl.

Malachai gave the goggles back to Elizabeth, and she put them back around her neck.

"So if we're going to fight," Dominic said. "We should get ready!"

"Fight! Smash! Win!" Goblimon said with a roar.

Tobias looked at the wormlike Digimon heading their way. "Hagurumon, what kind of Digimon are these?"

Hagurumon floated around Tobias. "Well, these look like Kunemon, but they're odd."

"How so?" Tobias asked

Mushroomon cracked his knuckles, "Keh heh heh. Kunemon are normally yellow, but these ones are black and it looks like they're disintegrating or deteriorating."

"Is it a virus?" Brooke asked, taking a step back.

Fanbeemon buzzed. "It could be, but there's nothing to fear. The only way to get rid of a virus is to defeat it."

"Virus or not, there's something wrong with those Kunemon and we need to stop them." Lopmon said as she took a fighting stance.

As the Kunemon got closer, the Digimon moved in between their human partners and the Kunemon.

"Blazing Ice!" Lopmon shouted as she fired shards of ice at the Kunemon, slowing them down.

"Gear Stinger!" Fanbeemon unleashed an onslaught of barbed stingers on the Kunemon.

"Bonfire!" Candlemon shot a ball of fire from his mouth that created a small explosion in the center of the Kunemon.

"Super Thunder Strike!" Elecmon shouted as he let multiple lightning bolts shoot from his tails and strike the Kunemon.

"Gobli Bomb!" Goblimon said as he threw a small bomb at the Kunemon that created a small explosion.

"Metal Cannon!" Dorumon yelled as he fired a ball of iron from his mouth and hit some of the Kunemon.

"Fungus Cruncher!" Mushroomon unleashed a torrent of explosive mushrooms raining down on the Kunemon.

"Cog Crusher!" Hagurumon yelled as it fired several gears into the Kunemon.

The group of Kunemon stopped in their tracks, and their bodies disintegrated into a cloud of black smoke. The smoke began to take shape and harden into a new form.

"Is, is that normal?" Elizabeth asked as she took a step back.

"Not normally!" Fanbeemon shouted with a buzz.

The smoke cleared to reveal a new Digimon, another black colored Digimon with bits of it appearing to disintegrate and reform with every step.

"Oh no! That's a JewelBeemon!" Candlemon shouted.

"No good! No good! Bad time!" Goblimon shouted as he smashed his club on the ground.

"Spike... Buster..." The BlackJewelBeemon said with a gasp as it leapt into the air and sent a rain of spikes down on the Digimon below. The spikes exploded on contact, sending the Digimon and the humans flying. "Spike... Buster..." BlackJewelBeemon groaned again as it sent another barrage of spikes down on the targets below.

Everyone was thrown back, the Digimon taking most of the attack.

"Our Digimon!" Brooke cried out.

The Digimon were lying motionless around them, a few grunts and groans to signify their pain.

"What do we do?" Malachai asked.

"What can we do. It's over." Cale said as he slumped against a rock.

"We can believe in our Digimon!" Elizabeth shouted, clutching her Digivice tightly.

"Oh yeah, they said it will help make them stronger!" Rebecca said as she pulled her Digivice out of her purse.

The others fished their Digivices out of their respective pockets and held them tightly. Nobody knew what to do, and nobody expected what was coming next. The screens on their Digivices all lit up, and the light from the Digivices washed over the unconscious Digimon. Not only did their Digimon begin moving again, but they began changing.

"Hagurumon Digivolve to Guardromon!" Hagurumon said as his gear-like body got larger and changed shape.

"Elecmon Digivolve to Leomon!" Elecmon said as his form changed to that of a bipedal lion.

"Lopmon Digivolve to Turuiemon!" Lopmon said as she began glowing and growing.

"Goblimon Digivolve to Ogremon!" Goblimon roared as his body grew larger.

"Fanbeemon Digivolve to Waspmon!" Fanbeemon buzzed as his body became larger and more mechanical.

"Candlemon Digivolve to Wizardmon!" Candlemon shouted as his body took on the shape of a tall humanoid figure.

"Dorumon Digivolve to Dorugamon!" Dorumon yelled as his body seemed to grow larger.

"Mushroomon Digivolve to Woodmon!" Mushroomon yelled as his body glowed and grew larger.

When the light faded away the Digimon were staring at the black JewelBeemon, with every intention of showing it that they were ready to protect their partners.

"Go crush that weird Digimon!" Sarah shouted as she pumped her fist in the air.

"You got it boss!" Woodmon shouted as the eight champion Digimon charged at the black JewelBeemon.


End file.
